Garage Sale Goodie

Our neighborhood had it's semi-annual yard sale a few weeks ago, and even though I chose not to participate in the torture of actually selling things in the yard sale, of course I needed to drive around and look for fabulous pieces of furniture!

I passed about 10 signs directing me to one home that boasted lots of antiques, so I thought, this should be good.  And it was - I found this cool chair!!

The tag on the bottom says it was born in 1974 - is that an antique?  I 'm not sure - but it is really cool.  I have seen a lot of blogging about actually painting upholstered furniture, so I think I might attempt it.  I am planning on using it as a desk chair in the guest room.  I thought about painting it yellow,with maybe black piping?  Or recovering in a graphic black and white?  But recovering will get rid of that neat stitching detail on the back.  What do you think?

Sara's Bedside Table Rule of Thumb

I've Been Featured! Judy at DIY by Design was so sweet to feature my guest room redo on her blog last week after I joined in her Swing Into Spring linky party. She even used the word stunning! Wow, talk about making me feel warm and fuzzy!

Judy's kitchen had me at hello and I knew I needed to see what this talented gal was doing in her house.

Check out her delicately beautiful daughter's room.

Thank you Judy!

I have been improving on my room, and I just learned something new from Sara last night on Sara's House. The rule of thumb with nightstand/lamp proportions to the bed is:

Your nightstand should be as tall as the mattress and your lamp should be about as tall as your headboard - wow! Who knew? Did you?

So what I bought for my new room, might be a little off...what do you think? Lamp too small here?

As you can see, I still haven't taken off the plastic wrap from the lampshade yet, so I can totally take it back (I think I say that about most things - which is why my MIL laughs as she picks up most things in the house to find the price tag that is still stuck to the bottom of things I've had for years).

I love the nightstand, so I might need to raise the headboard up a bit?

What do you think of the plate arrangement, it wasn't the arrangement I had on the floor, but when we put it on the wall I kind of ran out of room. Does it look off kilter, not enough plates, just need to move around a bit?

OK, now I am off to finish the Variety Show program - which I should have been working on for the last hour....

Pretty Plates and Platters

So I have been out looking for plates to fill the space above the headboard in my new guest room that is eagerly awaiting company...

I couldn't decide - simple classic white, or graphic black and white?
A random arrangement or something more streamlined and symmetrical?

I found a few inspiration pics:

With so much pattern on the bed and windows I think I might go with plain white, and I think I am definitely a symmetrical kind of gal.  What do you think?

Guest Room Step One!

Oh my word! Who knew it would take me two weeks to paint this room?! And all of it's trim! I did do it for a couple hours here and there, in the middle of Daisy Scout meetings, Girl Scout Cookie pick up and hand out, and Variety Show preparations - so it took a while. At least I had a good friend keeping me company and sharing advice:

We began with caulk, caulk and more caulk. Painting the wood trim reveals every nook and cranny that you never noticed with the naked wood.

Then the primer (BTW - the primer war was a draw - the Bulls Eye primer was about the same as the Sherwin Williams Adhesion primer, it still took two coats of primer and two coats of paint.
Here is one coat of primer:

Here are the same doors after two coats of primer and one coat of paint:

And the final product, 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint:

I did end up choosing the color Amazing Gray by Sherwin Williams instead of Silver Fox - Benjamin Moore, it was a touch lighter, and I wanted to err on the airy side.

 

It is a nice taupey gray, I had some warnings about grays that tend to look purple - thanks for that! But this one turned out really nice in the room.
We also painted the ceiling the same color as the trim - Pure White - Sherwin Williams, it really brightened up the room.

Here is the room now!

I still need to add some things, I am thinking:

• some plates or small quatrefoil mirrors over the bed
• would love to have overhead lighting put in, it's begging for a chandelier!
• a new lamp, I'm thinking citrus, but I might have to whip out the spray paint to get it
• a new bed skirt, gray or black?
• my seamstress (aka MIL) said she could make an adjustment to the bedspread so it would fit better on the full size bed
• either a dresser or desk on the entry wall to the left. The hub says a desk doesn't make sense, but I thought it would give the opportunity for a chair we might not other wise have room for. Any opinions?

P.S. I didn't paint the inside of the windows for fear of painting them shut. When warmer weather gets here in 3 years or so, I will paint them... I can turn a blind I to them until then, right?







Linking to:

Houseography for House Tour: Guest Rooms
The DIY Showoff for DIY Project Parade
Under the Table and Dreaming for Sunday Showcase Party
Dittle Dattle for Amaze Me Monday

Debbiedoos Blogging and Blabbing for her Newbie Party
Between Naps on the Porch for Metamorphasis Monday

Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesdays
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia for Tuesday's Treasures
Domestically Speaking for Power of Paint Party
DIY by Design for Winter Blues Wednesday

Guest Room Sneak Peak...

Yesterday I started painting the downstairs guest room that I have been orchestrating for a while now. Here it is when we looked at the house, one of three office spaces in the house - the people that lived here must have worked way too much.

I posted my inspiration pics earlier here. The room has some really pretty crown - but it is that yuck orange wood that the whole house is trimmed in. The color of the wood is really an additional color in the room - only once the orange is painted over you can see what the wall color is.


In this small room I have 3 doors to paint, 2 windows (which partly will have to wait until spring), crown moulding and baseboards. I will do one maybe two coats of primer, then at least 1-2 coats of paint. While my MIL and FIL were here building and painting our built-ins they said they discovered a miracle primer that was outdoing my Sherwin Williams Adhesion Primer 2 to 1. I hope she's right! I'm not that excited about it 1 coat in, but we shall see.

Then on to the walls, I solicited much advice and looked at many blogs to get a good suggestion for gray. My two finalists were SW Amazing Gray and BM Silver Fox:

     

Amazing Gray                                   Silver Fox

I thought I was going with Silver Fox, but when I took everything out of the room and started painting out the trim, it looked a little dark - so I will paint a bigger swatch tomorrow and see how I feel.

Here is my pillow sneak peek:

If I can get all the trimming done, maybe I can get some help with the walls this weekend. My roller seems to be more willing to help if he doesn't have to trim. Wish us luck!

Wash That Gray Right Onto The Wall!

One of the reasons we chose this house was because of the downstairs bedroom and full bath. We both have grandmothers that can't navigate the stairs - so this is a great choice! It was a bit thrown together for a visit, and has been neglected since then.
I've had some trouble deciding on a color scheme, but I have finally decided!

Here are some of my inspiration pics:

Designer Samantha Pynn Photo Virginia Macdonald

homesandgardens.com

I LOVE this pom pom fringe! I think I might have to make it work somehow in this room.

http://emilyaclark.blogspot.com/search/label/before%20and%20after

I am working on putting it together and need to pick a wall paint! Any gray suggestions?